Standing Shouldn’t Be Difficult
by Eliza.Cava.Shep
Summary: “Standing seems like the easiest thing in the world. All you have to do is keep your balance and not move. But when the choice between standing and moving decides who lives and who dies, it becomes so much more complicated.” AU- If Gary Clark had come looking for Meredith intead of Derek as his eye for an eye.
1. The Choice

He stood in the empty elevator and waited for someone to get on. His face remained emotionless, having been drained of any humanity the moment his wife died. Only he knew of the handgun concealed in his pocket, which he had already used to shoot two doctors.

The elevator bell dinged and the doors opened to reveal an impatient looking Asian woman. She stepped quickly into the elevator and pushed a button, crossing her arms and waiting for the doors to close. She didn't even acknowledge that he was there.

"Excuse me, could you tell me where to find Dr. Grey?" The man asked her. She looked at him and cocked her head to the side. Dr. Meredith Grey was her best friend, her person, and the other Dr. Grey was Meredith's sister.

"Which one?" She asked skeptically. The man set his jaw and tried to remember the name he had seen on the Seattle Grace Mercy West website just hours before.

"Um... she's the chief's wife." He finally said, unable to think of her name. The surgeon assumed that this man was related to a patient and decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, despite the haunted and distant look on his face.

"Uh- last I heard she was headed to see him, she's probably in his office by now." She shrugged. He nodded, remembering the time he had spent in that office with a lawyer speaking to the Chief.

"Thank you." He said as courteously as he could. The surgeon nodded politely and stepped off of the elevator as it dinged and the doors opened, not even looking back at him. As soon as she was out of sight, a smirk grew on his face as he realized how close he was to sweet revenge. He would make them all feel the pain of losing someone they love.

XxXxX

He headed straight to the Chief's office, his footsteps echoing in the empty hallways. He knew that they knew he was there. But they didn't know it was him. He reached the catwalk and saw three people inside the large office, all speaking frantically.

His glided across the catwalk, his face still emotionless and his hands tucked neatly in his pockets, until he reached the door. The two women and the Chief inside the office still hadn't noticed him yet and he was glad. He wanted the element of surprise.

The man took a heavy breath and threw open the door, drawing the attention of all of the room's residents. The two women looked at him, confused, but the Chief recognized him.

"Mr. Clark." He said, surprised. Gary Clark looked at him coldly as he drew the gun from his pocket. One of the women, who was drenched in blood and seemed to be in shock, gasped loudly and scrambled away from him. The other, who had the blond hair and green eyes he had seen on the website, jumped back and gripped onto the Chief, her husband, in terror.

"I assume you're Dr. Grey." He said to her. The skinny doctor's eyes were wide with fear as her chest jumped up and down, gasping for air. She somehow found the mental capacity to nod and looked up into her husband's eyes, which had the same look of terror and confusion as her green ones.

"I'm Gary Clark. My wife was a patient here. She was killed. Your husband was the one who gave the order. Richard Webber was her doctor, I'm aware that he's known you since you were born. Apparently, the doctor who killed my wife was your sister. I need an eye for an eye. And that's you." He said. The horrified woman looked at her husband as if to say, _is this true?_

He just gulped and stared at the man pointing a gun at his wife.

"You can't shoot her. She didn't do anything." The man said, pushing his wife, who was trembling with fear, behind his back. He puffed his chest out slightly to show that he wasn't going to back down. Gary Clark chuckled.

"Oh, I think I know just what to do. You! Get over here." He pointed to the horrified doctor drenched in blood standing in the corner, signaling for her to come closer to him. She walked slowly towards the formidable man, swallowing a large lump in her throat and holding her breath.

The gunman reached out and grabbed the girl, pulling her close to him and thrusting the gun up against her head. The small girl whimpered in surprise and held her breath, terrified to move.

"Dr. Grey, I want you to come out from behind Dr. Shepherd." He said calmly, as if he were talking to a preschooler. Derek Shepherd looked frantically between the surgeon he knew as April Kepner and his wife, who was clutching onto the back of his lab coat like a child terrified to let go of their mother.

"Meredith...Do. Not. Move." He told her through gritted teeth. The woman felt tears stinging at the backs of her eyes as she looked into the bright blue eyes of the man holding the gun and then into the brighter blue eyes of her husband, who was pleading with her to just stand still.

Standing seems like the easiest thing in the world. All you have to do is keep your balance and not move. But when the choice between standing and moving decides who loves and who dies, it becomes so much more complicated.

"Okay, let me make this choice easier. Move out from behind Dr. Shepherd or I'll shoot him." He said, throwing Dr. Kepner to the ground and turning the gun on Derek, who tried to hide his fear and continued to stand his ground, telling Meredith over and over not to move.

April Kepner lay unconscious on the carpet of the office, having hit her head just hard enough to pass out. Her body still trembled as her chest rose up and down rhythmically and her heart beat slower and slower each second until it mellowed out to a normal pace.

At the thought of her husband being shot, there was no longer a desicion for the petite surgeon and without a second thought, she jumped out from behind the man's muscly frame. He gasped and looked at her, fear and anxiety filling his eyes.

Meredith couldn't make herself look the Chief in the eyes, knowing that if she did, she may be tempted to jump back into the safety of his shielding. Instead, she stared straight ahead at the gunman and took evenly paced steps towards him, drawing out the time until she would be under his control. She could see that he was getting impatient but she wanted to give Derek as much time as possible to look at her for what may be the last time.

As soon as she was within arm's length, Gary Clark reached out and grabbed her, whipping her around so that she was facing her husband with her arm pinned behind her back uncomfortably. She finally met his eyes and saw that they had overflowed with tears, his bright blue pupils dancing in the sticky liquid.

She felt her own green eyes well up as they looked at each other and both seemed to feel it as the man jammed the gun into Meredith's silky blond hair. She whimpered quietly in pain as the metal made contact with her scalp, feeling the cold material form a ring in the skin.

Derek Shepherd stood helplessly and watched, frozen in anguish. His eyes had already become red and puffy and his face had become flushed as he looked to the man thrusting a gun into his wife's head.

"Please... don't- do... this. Anything... I'll do- anything." Derek pleaded. He felt broken as silent sobs broke through his speech, making him feel more and more panicked. Gary Clark only felt pleasure in seeing the man plead with him. He knew that nothing could change his mind and finally did the thing he had played out in his head for weeks.

"Any last words, Dr Grey?" He almost shouted. As Meredith Grey spoke, a skinny Asian woman turned the corner onto the catwalk and froze, seeing the scene folding out in front of her. Guilt washed over her as she recognized the man and realized she had directed him to the office only minutes before.

"Derek... I love you. I'm sorry that we didn't get the chance to grow old together. I'm sorry that we can't raise this baby together. And I'm sorry that I couldn't find the courage to tell you sooner." Meredith cried. Her husband rocked back in shock at the news of his wife's pregnancy.

The words didn't even register in Gary's mind until it was already done. He had pulled the trigger and heard two screams. He had only expected one, but ignored the surgeon he had spoken to minutes ago rushing into the room and dropped Meredith Grey's limp and lifeless body to the ground.

Blood had already soaked his clothes and continued to gush from the wound in her head, drenching her hair and the carpet all around her. Both of the conscious surgeons rushed over to their fallen colleague, trembling and crying uncontrollably.

Gary Clark felt only relief as he backed slowly out of the room, still no emotion showing on his face. The desperate cries of the doctors on the ground still rang in his ears long after the door had closed and he had departed down the hallway.

 **I wrote another Gary Clark story. I haven't watched a new episode of Grey's Anatomy in forever so I've been watching old ones and felt like writing another shooting fic. This will have multiple chapters.**

 **Kisses!**

 **-E**


	2. The Break

Next Gary Clark went in search of the other Dr. Grey. The one who had unplugged his wife. He wanted to be the one to tell her that he had shot her sister. He wanted to tell her that she was most likely dead already. He wanted to see the pain on her face when she realized that she may never speak to her sister again.

He walked through the halls and asked everyone he could see if they knew where she was. No one thought twice about the bloodstains on his clothes, many others had them as well. Finally, a nurse told him that she had just seen Dr. Grey, or she referred to her as Lexie, duck into a room down the hall.

He sped up his walk just slightly in anticipation, getting himself excited to see the woman's devastation. He threw open the door to the room and furrowed his eyebrows. There were two people in the room, a man, seemingly in his fourties, and a young lady, maybe 25.

"Have either of you seen Lexie Grey?" He asked. The two people were holding onto each other for dear life as looking at him in terror. The girl gulped.

"Um... that's me." She said softly. He raised his eyebrows.

"No, you're not Lexie Grey. Lexie Grey has brown hair. I've seen her before she was..." Her face registered in his brain and he realized that she was in fact the person who had killed his wife. He was filled with adrenaline and excitement as he looked at her, an evil smirk on his face.

"Lexie Grey... the woman who killed my wife." He said. Her eyes went wide as she realized who he was and wrapped her arms around the large Amman even tighter, suddenly filled with fear.

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna shoot you, little girl." He said, pulling the gun from his pocket. Both of He room's inhabitants gasped and leaned away from him, fear in their eyes.

"I've already gotten my revenge." He sighed. "Meredith, was that her name? Oh, the Chief was so upset. Turns out, she was pregnant. Oops." He shrugged. Lexie Grey screamed and began hyperventilating, refusing to believe what she was hearing.

Mark Sloan pulled her closer to him, feeling tears in his own eyes and stroking her dyed blonde hair. She gasped for air and sobbed into his chest, screaming at the top of her lungs.

"NOO!!" Her voice broke and she collapsed into more sobs, shaking against Mark's body. He looked back at the man standing before them, angry tears still pooled in his eyes.

"You're lying. You wouldn't shoot Meredith. Derek wouldn't let you." He spat. Gary Clark chuckled.

"She offered herself right up when I threatened to shoot her precious neurosurgeon. He just sort of stood there and watched. He was shaking pretty bad and crying like a baby. It's kind of ironic. He's a brain surgeon but he couldn't save his own wife from a bullet to the head. Sad, really." Gary sighed. Lexie began screaming and sobbing again, her entire face and neck drenched in tears.

"MEREDITH!!! NO!!!" She cried. Mark rubbed her back silently and let tears roll down his face. Gary Clark left the room, but they didn't even realize.

As soon as the door was closed, he turned around and was greeted by a whole SWAT team completely surrounding him. One of them yelled for him to drop the gun and put his hands up.

He knew he had to be fast. They would arrest him and send him to jail for the rest of his life. He couldn't live with that. So, without thinking twice, he held the gun up to his own head and pulled the trigger.

XxXxX

Lexie Grey heard the gunshot and froze. She expected that Gary Clark had killed another person on his murderous rampage. So she was surprised when multiple armed men with metal armor and helmets ran into the room and helped her and Mark off of the ground.

Her eyes were red and puffy and her entire body felt inflamed and numb as they led her out of the room. Just outside of the door, she saw his body. He had shot himself in the head.

Lexie couldn't take it anymore. She broke free from Mark's grasp and started running down the hallway, sobbing to herself and gasping for air. She knew exactly where she wanted to go and didn't have to think to get there.

She reached the catwalk and saw them. She was stricken with grief and collapsed halfway down, screaming and crying louder than she had ever heard. Mark Sloan was right behind her, swooping down and helping her to her feet. He almost carried her the rest of the way to the office, throwing open the door and assessing the situation.

Meredith was laying on the ground in a huge pool of blood. Derek was holding both sides of her head with his hands, which were covered in the bright red liquid. April Kepner lay, her clothes soaked in dried blood, unconscious a few feet away.

Lexie jumped out of Mark's arms and ran over to help Derek, while his best friend stood frozen staring at them. The Chief looked like he had been crying for a year straight and was completely out of breath. Meredith was just as pale or even paler than she had been when she drowned, her skin a light shade of gray.

Mark's mouth hung open as he struggled to form words and felt someone pushing past him. It was Cristina Yang, in about the same shape as Derek, her arms full of emergency supplies. Finally, Mark was capable of turning his thoughts into words.

"Gary Clark is dead. The threat is gone, we can get her to an OR. We need to get as many doctors as possible to save her life." He said. Derek looked up and him and nodded, the tears on his face reflecting in the light.

XxXxX

Getting Meredith to an OR had been difficult, but with Lexie holding bandages to her sister's head to stop the bleeding and Cristina, Mark, and Derek carrying the small woman, it didn't take long until they were out in the open and someone brought them a stretcher.

Derek ran as fast as his legs would carry him to the OR, where he burst into the first door and was thankful to see Teddy and Owen standing over a stable patient.

"Teddy, Owen, Meredith's been shot! We need emergency surgery, we need everyone we can get!" Derek shouted. They both looked at him with wide eyes and immediately dropped what they were doing, ordering one of the other surgeons scrubbed in to finish the surgery without them.

"Oh, my god! What happened?!" Teddy shouted as they rushed out of the room, searching for an open OR. Derek didn't have the strength to tell her the story, so he just shook his head as they ran into the next room. Thankfully, it was open, and the scrub nurses and other people who had followed them rushed in, prepping the room for surgery as fast as they possibly could.

"We don't have time to scrub, we need to get in there ASAP." Teddy said. The group of surgeons nodded and put on gowns, sloppily tying on scrub caps and snapping on gloves.

One of the nurses let them know that they were ready and they ran over to the table, where Meredith sat, hastily draped and hooked up to a heart monitor and IV, unconscious. Derek ran around so that he was positioned correctly for a craniotomy and remembered all of the times that he had performed this procedure with his wife by his side.

Tears filled his eyes and his voice broke as he said his signature line slowly, calming himself and focusing on stopping the shaking in his hands.

"It's a beautiful day to save lives."

 **So, a team of the best surgeons at Seattle Grace is prepared to save one of their own! Will Meredith survive? Will her baby survive? Find out soon!**

 **Kisses!**

 **-E**


	3. The Miracle

His hand rested on Meredith's head and stroked her hair absently. His other hand was clenched around hers, which was cold and limp. There was a white bandage wrapped around most of her head, covering a large portion of her scalp.

He sat there for hours, staring at her face. Doctors came in and out to examine her, telling him that she should wake up soon every time. Yet, he still sat there and stared at her eyes, which were shut peacefully.

Her friends came in frequently, fussing over her blankets or the temperature in the room. They would sit across from him and hold her hand, speaking to her briefly and almost always crying, even the men.

At one point, Lexie ordered him to eat something and sleep, but he ignored her. He refused to leave the bedside until Meredith woke up. If it meant they both died sitting there, so be it.

"Derek..." Lexie's voice nagged behind him. He closed his eyes for a moment and shook his head, ignoring the empty feeling in his stomach and the soreness in his hands from holding onto her for so long.

"Derek, you've been sitting there for two days... you need to sleep, you need to eat something!" She cried. He ignored her entirely,

"I think her hand's gotten warmer in the past few minutes. Maybe that means she's waking up!" He told himself. Lexie sighed and left the room, knowing she wasn't going to get him to budge.

Derek repeated the odds over and over in his head, telling himself how lucky she was that she was still alive. _The bullet only hit the right side of her brain. She could wake up with only minor disabilities to the left side of her body. Those can be helped with physical therapy. She's going to wake up._

"Come on, Meredith! You have to wake up, you cannot leave me. Do not leave me, Meredith!" He cried, clutching her hand like a lifeline.

Meredith Grey let out a pained sigh, her eyes opening just a tiny bit. Derek shot up, her hand still clenched in his, and immediately started checking her neurological status.

"Meredith! Meredith, oh god, you're awake! Can you speak? Please, say something, anything at all!" He said as he shone his flashlight in her eyes. They both dilated perfectly and were capable of following his finger when he asked her to.

Finally, she tried to speak.

"Ouch."

XxXxX

"What?!" Cristina and Mark both shouted. Derek shrugged and smiled.

"I know. It's so crazy, it's never been documented before." He beamed. Cristina seemed skeptical.

"What if it's just a delayed reaction? Like what Izzie had, what if her memory starts resetting or she just codes out of nowhere?" She asked. Derek sighed and the smile disappeared from his face.

"We are going to keep monitoring her for a few days, but it looks like she has full neurological integrity." He confirmed. Mark's mouth was still hanging open and Cristina shook her head, chuckling to herself.

"Only Meredith would get shot in the head and sleep it off." She laughed. Derek started laughing as well followed by Mark, and soon enough they were all howling with laughter.

XxXxX

Derek face hurt from smiling so much as he sat at Meredith's bedside, holding her hand and talking to her.

"Oh, god!" She suddenly shouted. He jumped up and looked around the room, filled with panic.

"What?! What?! What is it?!" He asked. Meredith's eyes were filled with fear as she looked at him.

"What happened to the baby?" She asked. He sighed as he realized she wasn't dying and sat back down, taking her hand back into his.

"We monitored the baby during the surgery and we got it as much blood as possible..." he started. Meredith's face fell as she realized what he was trying to say.

"I lost it, didn't I?" She cried. He frowned at her and rubbed her hand comfortingly as she let a tear fall down her face.

"It's okay. We can try again someday. Right now, it's a miracle that you're alive and aren't disabled. Trust me, I'm so thankful for that." He soothed. She breathed deeply and nodded, squeezing his hand and then turning over to go to sleep. It didn't take her long and as soon as she was asleep her placed a little kiss on her head and left the room, finally going to eat and sleep.

XxXxX

Luckily, Meredith didn't wake up again while he was gone. When he got back, Lexie was sitting my her bed and smiling at her. He pulled up a chair next to Meredith's little sister and placed his hand on top of hers, smiling lightly at her. She returned the expression and then sighed.

"It's such a miracle. I can't believe it actually happened to us. Now I just feel bad for all the people it didn't happen to." She shook her head, thinking of the doctors who had died the day of the shooting. Derek rubbed her hand gently.

"We just have to make sure that we cherish this for everything that it is. She's... she's tough. She's survived so much already, and I wouldn't be surprised if there's more to come. We just have to be ready for it and know that whatever it is, we need to be there for her every step of the way." He sighed. Lexie nodded and looked back at her sister, sympathy crossing her face.

"I was so scared she was gonna die." She said in relief.

"So was I."


End file.
